Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Personalizing Classes in Under the Dying Sun

Sooner or later, some player wants his character to be “different” and a frequent response has been to create a new class to accommodate that or to allow multiple classes. The Classes in Under the Dying Sun are very broad in scope and are intended to accommodate many different types of character. However, if the group feels the desire to change things around, one simple option is to swap out certain analogous Class-based Abilities.

For example, removing the Slayer’s Steely Thews and replacing it with the Survivor’s Survival Instinct creates a more dexterous type of warrior. The Referee should consider this carefully however. Some Class-based Abilities are more useful than others. Swapping out Steely Thews for the Survivor’s Jury-Rig ability is probably an unfair trade given the greater applicability of the latter ability.

In general, the bonuses to Ability Throws are probably equivalent swaps. The “signature abilities” of the Slayer (Combat Reflexes, Weapon Mastery, and Mass Slaughter) and of the Survivor (Stealth, Jury-Rig, and Back Stab) may be reasonable swaps depending upon play-style and expectations. I could see playing up a more assassin-type guy by swapping out the Slayer's Mass Slaughter for the Survivor's Back-Stab and less-technical Survivor who gives up Jury-Rig in favour of the Slayer's Combat Reflexes.

The Sorcerer’s “signature ability” (Psychic Sorcery) is not a good candidate for this sort of thing. It is the defining ability of the class and allowing another class to take it renders the Sorcerer pretty pointless and the other class a bit too flexible.

(Here I resist the urge to make a snarky comment about more recent iterations of Ye Auld Game.)